Whole Foods has recently been noticeably out of stock especially stores located on the East Coast. Karma Quick-Panwala, a regular customer at the stores, registered her disappointed after missing the Straus Family Creamery milk brand that she uses to make tea for her husband. On Thursday, she left the San Francisco store without the family's go-to milk brand which is her favorite. Moreover, she made Instacart orders this week and for five times she missed the products including her favorite milk. As a result, she had to source for substitutes from different stores. The worried Whole Food customer was speaking outside the Franklin Street store.
Numerous responses have come from shoppers who were missing their favorite items from the retailer's stores. According to the shoppers, the adopted inventory organization system attributes to the current state of empty shelves. Some of the shoppers also relate the empty shelves to last year's acquisition of Whole Food Retailer Company by Amazon. Shoppers in San Francisco have specific details on stocking of the stores. Supply scarcity was evident at the beginning of the week until Thursday when three of the San Francisco retailer locations normalized. Stanyan Street, Fourth Street, and Franklin Street are currently the only stocked Whole Food stores in San Francisco.
Isabelle Beekman also gave her bouncing experience at the Franklin Street. She forwarded her complain upon missing Clover Milk after Christmas. She was then directed to Whole Food's customer service headquarters where she was referred back to her local store. According to Beekman, the product was back on the shelf after her complaint. However, she raised concerns about missing Spinach on Monday and today.
An employee who asked for anonymity shed light on the main cause of empty shelves in the retailer's stores. According to the employee, the shortages began back in August after Amazon bought the chain stores. Change of prices in various products has forced the organization to stop stocking items they consider of low profit.
Rusell Kowick also demonstrated a shortage of vegetables that he supplies to his clients. Although Kowick demonstrates reliability of the retailer on every item he needs, he has recently turned away several orders on Cucumber and Zucchini among other groceries because of the retailer's empty shelves. One of the store leaders who was also reluctant to speak because of company policies said the shortage only affected the East Coast. The Whole Foods management has not been available to comment on the same.